1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to graphical user interfaces, and more particularly a method, apparatus and program storage device for providing customizable, immediate and radiating menus for accessing applications and actions.
2. Description of Related Art
To work with a system, users need to be able to control the system and assess the state of the system. The portion of a system that a user engages with is often referred to as the user interface. In computer programming, a user interface refers to the graphical, textual and auditory information the program presents to the user, and the control sequences (such as keystrokes with the computer keyboard, movements of the computer mouse, and selections with the touchscreen) the user employs to control the program.
The design of a user interface affects the amount of effort the user must expend to provide input for the system and to interpret the output of the system, and how much effort it takes to learn how to do this. Usability is the degree to which the design of a particular user interface takes into account the human psychology and physiology of the users, and makes the process of using the system effective, efficient and satisfying.
A graphical user interface (or GUI, often pronounced “gooey”) is a particular case of user interface for interacting with a computer that employs graphical images and widgets in addition to text to represent the information and actions available to the user. Usually the actions are performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements. One of the many advantages of GUIs in the computer field is their ability to represent computer application programs, documents and data as graphical display elements or icons as opposed to text-based elements.
Menu driven software programs are a specific example of a GUI. Such software programs enable a user to choose from a list of items that can be accessed directly by pulling down different menus from the menu bar, rather than requiring the user to remember the name and syntax of a command. GUIs were developed so that novice users could more easily select among available commands and, thus, operate computers. In the computer field, these menu driven software programs eventually lead to the development of a windowing environment in which the user may have multiple programs and files operable at one time with a selection among multiple commands. Each command appears in a window of the program data file being worked on. To effect selection within applications and switching between windows, a hand operated pointing device becomes a critical component of a computer system running windows based software applications. One example of a pointing device is a mouse.
Applications running in a windowed environment typically have a main menu bar with more specific commands being displayed in “pull down” menus stemming from specific portions of the main menu bar command headings. When the user wants to execute a command, the user must move the pointing device so that a cursor on the display points to the command on the desired menu heading. The command heading activates a pull down menu that displays a plurality of commands available for execution. In some instances, computer systems create hierarchies of menus (also referred to as “nesting”) leading to submenus to avoid excessively large menus or inappropriate menu chains. A command from the pull down menu may then be selected for execution. In accordance with conventional methods, only one command is executed at any given time since the pull down menu is typically limited to a single column of possible choices or objects. Movement amongst the menu bar and the pull down menus requires a great deal of movement of the pointing device (and thereby the cursor) to manipulate multiple windows or applications and their related commands. This movement is called “cursor commute.” This results in a time-consuming, less efficient user interface. Therefore, it is difficult for the young, the elderly, handicapped, or any novice user to traverse and coordinate the position of the pointing device and, thus, the cursor with which the execution is made.
One attempt to avoid a long horizontal list of menu options has resulted in “pop-up menus.” These menus have the advantage of bringing the menu to the cursor, rather than having to move the cursor to the menu. When a trigger event occurs, for example depressing the right button (known in the art as “right clicking”) on the pointing device (e.g., a mouse), a window is displayed next to the cursor position and the menu items to be related are listed. When the user chooses a menu item, the menu is removed and the action corresponding to the item is initiated. Pop-up menus, however, are limited to the number of commands they can contain and they often cover up part of the work area.
Pie menus enhance pop-up menus by allowing directional selection to choose menu items. A pie menu is similar to a pop-up menu, but the pie shaped menu items surround the cursor position in a circle. In their two-dimensional form, pie menus may be round menus. The menu items are positioned around a small inactive region in the center of the circle like slices of a pie, rather than in rows or columns as in conventional linear menus. In operation, the cursor is initially located in the center of the pie in a small inactive region. The active regions representing the menu items are therefore adjacent the cursor, but each in a different direction, and menu items are selected by clicking the mouse and then pointing in the direction of the menu item.
In general, the length of time it takes to select from a menu is small (seconds or fractions of second). However, because menu selection is a high frequency operation, reducing the time involved in selecting from a menu can result in significant time-savings in the overall time it takes to accomplish a larger task. Current right-click context menus are vertically oriented and do not provide immediate access to frequently used applications. For example, to open a new word processing document, users must right click, scroll down to “new”, wait for a menu to pop open, scroll over, scroll down, and click on the appropriate application.
For many users, particular applications are used more frequently than others. For example, a particular user may be opening email programs, word processing applications, and Internet browsers more than all other applications combined. Even with shortcuts located along the bottom toolbar and the Windows button, opening even the most familiarly located applications requires a significant amount of cursor manipulation and item selection.
It can be seen that there is a need for a method, apparatus and program storage device for providing customizable, immediate and radiating menus for accessing applications and actions.